Hope in a Morning Blighted

 April Sonnet II: April Cruel
by Francis Bennoch

April, ah me! how swiftly changes come,
How soon the month we love we learn to hate,
When boughs deflowered hang down disconsolate,
And clouds of grief make dark our garden home,
Where genial shunshine lingering loved to wait;
With joy we grafted in thy wounded rind
The fairest branch that ever blossom bore;
Clasped close, incorporate as one combined,
A newborn rapture trembled in thy core
As budding life expanded, more and more
We longed to reap the fruit; but woke to find
Hope in a morning blighted; from the shore
A ruthless wind stole with untimely frost,
And all thy cherished bloom was shrivelled, loosed, and lost.

April, 1855

Birthtime of Beauty and of Poesy

 April Sonnet I: April Kind
by Francis Bennoch 

April, though treacherous and changeling named,
Wanton and wayward in thy nature, still
Revealest thou those mysteries that fill
All hearts with love's deep sympathy, and famed
For blooms that odorous balm distil.
Birthtime of beauty and of poesy:
When birds betrothed melodious from the hill
Rain down their morning song of ecstasy.
When amorous bees toy fondly with the flower,
And drain its humid sweets deliriously,
Faint with excess, in love's delicious bower
Softly infolded, blossom-couched he lies:
Whilst draughts of fragrant dew oblivious sleep supplies. 

 April, 1855.

Habitude XXXI

 It seems that synderesis is a sort of specific power distinct from others, for what falls under one division seems to be of one kind. But in Jerome's Gloss on Ezek. I, synderesis is divided from the irascible, the concupiscible, and the rational, which are sorts of powers. Therefore synderesis is a sort of power.

Further, opposites are of one genus. But synderesis and sensuality seem to be opposed, because synderesis always inclines to the good, but sensuality always to the bad, hence it is signified by the serpent, as is obvious from Augustine, De Trin. XII. It seems therefore that synderesis is a power, as is sensuality.

Further, Augustine says, in the book on free choice, that in natural judgment there are sorts of rules and seeds of virtues that are true and immutable, and these we call synderesis. Since, therefore, the immutable rules by which we judge pertain to reason according to its higher part, as Augustine says in De Trin. XII, it seems that synderesis is the same as reason. And so it is a sort of power.

But contrariwise, rational powers have themselves [se habet] to opposites, according to the Philosopher. But synderesis does not have itself to opposites, but is inclined only to good. Therefore synderesis is not a power. For it were a power, it would need to be a rational power, for its not found in beasts.

I respond that it must be said that synderesis is not power but habitude, though some have proposed that synderesis is a sort of power higher than reason, while others have said that it is reason itself, not as reason, but as nature. But to make this evident, it must be considered that, as was said above, human reason, as it is a sort of change, proceeds from intellection of some things, to wit, those naturally familiar [naturaliter notorum] apart from investigation of reason, as from a sort of immutable source. and it is also ended in intellection, inasmuch as we judge from sources naturally familiar to us through themselves [per se naturaliter nota], about those things which we discover by reasoning. Now it is sure that, just as reflective reason reasons about reflective matters, practical reasons reasons about workable matters. Therefore they must be instilled in us naturally, just as sources of reflective matters, sources of workable matters. Now the first sources of reflective matters naturally instilled in us do not pertain to any specific power, but to a sort of specific habitude, which is called intellection of sources, as is obvious in Ethic. VI. So also sources of workable matters naturally instilled in us do not pertain to a specific power but to a specific natural habitude, which we call synderesis. So too synderesis is said to incite to good and to grumble about bad, inasmuch as we proceed through first sources to discover, and to judge the discovered. It is obvious, therefore, that synderesis is not power but natural habitude.

To the first, therefore, it must be said that Jerome's division is directed toward diversity of acts, not diversity of powers. But different acts can be of one power.

To the second it must be said that likewise the opposition of synderesis and sensuality is directed to opposition of acts, not according to different species of one genus.

To the third it must be said that these immutable reasons are the first sources of workable matters, about which it does not happen to err; and they are attributed to reason as power and to synderesis as habitude. So too we naturally judge by both, to wit, reason and synderesis. 

[Thomas Aquinas, ST 1.79.12, my translation. The Latin is here, the Dominican Fathers translation is here. ]

I should have done this article when discussing natural habitudes, but forgot; this will be an OK place to insert it, though.

'Synderesis', as one would expect from St. Thomas's comments, comes from St. Jerome; Jerome would have actually written syneidesis, which he glosses as scintilla conscientiae, the spark of consciousness/conscience. Conscientia is the direct Latin translation of syneidesis, and they both literally mean 'co-awareness/co-knowing'. A corruption entered into the manuscript tradition, so syneidesis became synderesis. 

St. Thomas distinguishes synderesis and conscience. He notes in the next article that synderesis is often called conscience by a figure of speech, but he reserves 'synderesis' for the habitude that is the understanding of practical principles and 'conscience' for the act that actually applies such principles in witnessing, judging, excusing, accusing, or punishing. Of course, in modern English, 'conscience' is used for both synderesis and conscience.

As a natural habitude, synderesis would fit into the taxonomy of natural habitudes as a natural habitude directed to operation according to the nature of the species, arising partly from nature, partly from external source, in apprehensive powers, just like its counterpart for speculative principles, and both are completed by cultivating intellectual virtues. For synderesis, this cultivation, especially of prudence, is what we are talking about when we talk about 'formation of conscience'.

And Sweet Is Sweet

 Envoy
by Francis Thompson 

Go, songs, for ended is our brief, sweet play;
Go, children of swift joy and tardy sorrow:
And some are sung, and that was yesterday,
And some unsung, and that may be to-morrow. 

Go forth; and if it be o’er stony way,
Old joy can lend what newer grief must borrow:
And it was sweet, and that was yesterday,
And sweet is sweet, though purchasèd with sorrow. 

Go, songs, and come not back from your far way:
And if men ask you why ye smile and sorrow,
Tell them ye grieve, for your hearts know To-day,
Tell them ye smile, for your eyes know To-morrow.

Links of Note

 * Jordan Schneider and Phoebe Chow, Civil Service: A History, at "ChinaTalk"

* Bill Vallicella, Intentionality in Thomas and Husserl and the Question of Realism, at "Maverick Philosopher"

* Frederico Zillio, Metaphysical Accounts of Personhood and Their Ethical Implications for the Vegetative State (PDF)

* Benjamin Stubbing and Oscar Sykes, A brief history of instant coffee, at "Works in Progress"

* Brendan Hodge, America's new Catholics, by the numbers, at "The Pillar"

* Riin Sirkel, Aristotle on Household Hierarchy and Metaphysical Explanation (PDF)

* Matthew Walz, Recovering the Origin of Catholic Social Teaching, Part One, and Part Two, at Catholic World Report

* Robert Pondiscio, Why is Education So Damn Fad-Prone?, at "The Next Thirty Years"

* Daniel Gregory, Inner speech and sign languages (PDF)

* Brian Kemple, Disintegrating Sensation: Perceiving the Truth in an Age of Digital Simulacra and Artificial Intelligence

* Daniel Andreas, The Most Important Woman in Kant's Life

Music on My Mind

 

Clamavi De Profundis, "Ye Sons and Daughters (O Filii et Filiae)".

He Is Risen

 Sonnet 68
by Edmund Spenser 

Most glorious Lord of life, that on this day
Didst make thy triumph over death and sin,
And having harrowed hell, didst bring away
Captivity thence captive, us to win:
This joyous day, dear Lord, with joy begin,
And grant that we, for whom thou diddest die,
Being with thy dear blood clean washed from sin,
May live forever in felicity:
And that thy love we weighing worthily,
May likewise love thee for the same again;
And for thy sake, that all like dear didst buy,
May love with one another entertain.
So let us love, dear love, like as we ought,
Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.

Happy Easter!